Patna: The Bihar deputy chief minister, Samrat Choudhary, has claimed that as many as 60% of crimes in the state are being committed from within jails, pledging a tougher approach to organised crime and influential offenders.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday after a workers’ felicitation ceremony at the Digha assembly office complex in Patna, Choudhary said the state government was acting swiftly to curb criminal activity. “We will send all mafia to jail. No one, however powerful, will be spared,” he said, adding that criminals must fear the law.
Choudhary said the impact of the government’s measures would soon be visible to the public. He announced that the properties of those accused in the fodder scam would be confiscated and repurposed as schools for children from economically weaker families.
He cited a previous instance in which the house of a former director general of police had been seized and converted into a school. “Now the same will be done with the houses of the accused in the fodder scam,” he said.
Earlier, while inaugurating the event as chief guest, the deputy chief minister said the government’s priorities for the next five years would include good governance, the rule of law and employment generation. He said the decision to reopen 25 sugar mills had been taken at the first cabinet meeting, signalling a renewed focus on reviving industry.
Choudhary also said the vision of a developed Bihar would be realised only when young people who had migrated for work returned to the state. He added that the resolution of land issues involving more than 1,000 acres in Rajiv Nagar, Nepali Nagar and Digha was in its final stages.
The state BJP president and industries minister, Dilip Jaiswal, said industrial development would be a priority alongside governance reforms, with plans to establish factories in every district. Road construction minister Nitin Nabin said electoral competition within the BJP was often more intense than contests against opposition parties.
Agriculture minister Ram Kripal Yadav described farmers as the backbone of Bihar’s economy, while MP Ravi Shankar Prasad dismissed opposition allegations of vote theft, calling them an insult to voters.
